Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T18:51:17.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Towards the National Song Book: The History of an Idea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Gordon Cox
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper traces the relationship between music and national feeling which permeated popular education during the latter part of the nineteenth century, culminating in the publication of The National Song Book (Stanford, 1906). By the First World War there was hardly a school in the country which did not possess a copy. The roots of the idea of national songs are traced back to Herder and Engel, and in particular to William Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time (1858–9). The paper argues that music educationists developed distinct theories about the educative value of such songs in developing notions of nationhood, patriotism and racial pride. Specifically a line of development is traced in the development of The National Song Book through Charles Stanford, W. H. Hadow and Arthur Somervell, while taking cognisance of the dissenting views of John Stainer and Cecil Sharp. The paper concludes that The National Song Book proclaimed the hegemony of the literate tradition as opposed to the oral, and considers the view that national songs contained within them the danger of the manipulation of patriotism.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , November 1992 , pp. 239 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adey, L. (1988) Class and Idol in the English Hymn. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Allsobrook, D. (1990) Two figures in the landscape of Welsh music education: W. H. Hadow and Walford Davies. History of Education, 19, 219–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, L. F. (1931) Pestalozzi. London: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Blacking, J. (1987) ‘A Commonsense View of all Music’: Reflections on Percy Grainger's Contribution to Ethnomusicology and Music Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Broadwood, L. & Fuller-Maitland, J. A. (1893) English County Songs. London: Cramer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, P. (1927) The University of London Song Book. London: J. Curwen.Google Scholar
Chappell, William (1858–1859) Popular Music of the Olden Time: A Collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads and Dance Tunes illustrative of the National Music of England. London: Cramer, Beale and Chappell. Two volumes.Google Scholar
Chappell, William (1860) Old English Ditties from Popular Music of the Olden Time. London: Chappell.Google Scholar
Committee of Council on Education (1873–1898) Report of the Committee of Council on Education. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Cox, G. (1990) The legacy of folk song: the influence of Cecil Sharp on music education. British Journal of Music Education, 7, 89–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, G. (1991) ‘Sensitiveness to the Higher Rhythms’: Arthur Somervell and his vision of music education. Westminster Studies in Education, 14, 69–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, H. S. (1982) The language of patriotism. History Workshop, XII, 8–33.Google Scholar
Curwen Edition (n.d.) School Music in the Curwen Edition. London: J. Curwen.Google Scholar
Dean-Smith, M. (1954) A Guide to English Folk Song Collections 1822–1952 with an Index to their Contents, Historical Annotations and an Introduction. Liverpool: The University Press of Liverpool in association with the English Folk Dance and Song Society.Google Scholar
Engel, C. (1866) An Introduction to the Study of National Music comprising Researches into Popular Songs, Traditions and Customs. London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer.Google Scholar
Farmer, J. (1895) Gaudeamus: A Selection of Songs for Schools and Colleges. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Farmer, J., Fanning, E. and Buck, P. (1922) Harrow Song Book. Complete edition. London: Novello.Google Scholar
Finkielkraut, A. (1988) The Undoing of Thought. Translated by O'Keefe, C.. London: The Claridge Press.Google Scholar
Greene, H. P. (1935) Charles Villiers Stanford. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Greene, R. L. (1935) The Early English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grew, S. (1921) National music and the folk-song. Musical Quarterly, 7, 172–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadow, W. H. (1903) Songs of the British Islands: One Hundred National Melodies Selected and Edited for the Use of Schools. London: J. Curwen.Google Scholar
Harker, D. (1985) Fakesong: The Manufacture of British ‘folksong’ 1700 to the Present Day. Milton Keynes: Open University.Google Scholar
Hughes, T. (1908) Tom Brown's Schooldays. London: Dent. First published 1857.Google Scholar
Hullah, J. (1842) Wilhem's Method of Teaching Singing Adapted to English Use under the Superintendence of the Committee of Council on Education. London: John W. Parker. Reprinted, Kilkenny: Boethius, 1983.Google Scholar
Hullah, J. (1866) The Song Book: Words and Tunes from the Best Poets and Musicians. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hullah, J. (1873) Old English Songs for Schools. London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivimey, J. W. (1936) Boys and Music: Memories and Stories of Wellington, Harrow, Dulwich, Cheltenham and Marlborough from 1888 to 1933. Marlborough: County Paper Office.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamenetsky, C. (1977) Folktale and ideology in the Third Reich. Journal of American Folklore, 90, 168–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karpeles, M. (Rev. Peter Kennedy.) (1987) An Introduction to English Folk Song. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, J. M. ed. (1986) Imperialism and Popular Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Malvern, S. (1989) Recapitulation and its use in accounts of children's drawings, modern art and modernism. Unpublished paper.Google Scholar
Mangan, J. A. (1986) ‘The Grit of our Forefathers’: invented traditions, propaganda and imperialism. In MacKenzie, ed., Imperialism and Popular Culture.Google Scholar
Manuel, F. E. ed. (1968) Reflections on the Philosophy of Mankind (von Herder, J. G. (1784–1791)). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Michael, I. (1989) Textbooks, schools and society. Paradigm: Newsletter of the Colloquium on Textbooks Schools and Society, 1, 1.Google Scholar
Middleton, R. (1970) The Education Act of 1870 as the start of the modern concept of the child. British Journal of Educational Studies, XVIII, 166–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholson, S. H. (1903) British Songs for British Boys: A Collection of One hundred National Songs: Designed for the Use of Boys in Schools and Choirs. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rainbow, B. (1988) The land with music: reality and myth in music education. In Kemp, A. E., ed., Research in Music Education: A Festschrift for Arnold Bentley. ISME Research Commission.Google Scholar
Scholes, P. (1947) The Mirror of Music 1844–1944: A Century of Musical Life in Britain as Reflected in the Pages of The Musical Times. London: Novello and Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
School Music Review, 1892–1930.Google Scholar
Sharp, C. J. (1902) A Book of British Song for Home and School. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Sharp, C. J. (1965) English Folk Song: Some Conclusions. 4th (revised) edition by Karpeles, Maud. London: Mercury Books. First published 1907.Google Scholar
Sharp Correspondence. Vaughan Williams Library, Cecil Sharp House, London.Google Scholar
Simmons, J. R. (1978) ‘So Deft a Builder’: An account of the life and work of Sir Henry Hadow. Ph.D. diss., University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Simpson, C. M. (1966) The British Broadside Ballad and its Music. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Somervell, A. (1917) Address to a musical society (MS).Google Scholar
Somervell, A. (1932) Untitled MS.Google Scholar
Somervell, E. (1906) A Rhythmic Approach to Mathematics. London: George Philip.Google Scholar
Stanford, C. V. (1884) Song-Book for Schools (being a Graduated Collection of Sixty-four Songs in One, Two and Three Parts Adapted for the Use of Children). London: National Society's Depository.Google Scholar
Stanford, C. V. (1906) The National Song Book. London: Boosey.Google Scholar
Stanford, C. V. (1908) Studies and Memories. London: Archibald Constable.Google Scholar
Stanford, C. V. (1909) Patriotic Songs for Schools: A Collection of Songs… taken almost entirely from ‘Song-Book for Schools’. London: National Society's Depository.Google Scholar
Stanford, C. V. (1951 a) Music and the War. Quarterly Review, 223, 393–408.Google Scholar
Stanford, C. V. (1951 b) Some thoughts concerning folk song and nationality. Musical Quarterly, 1, 232–45.Google Scholar
Sternfeld, F. W. (1965) Introduction to The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time (Chappell). New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Summerfield, P. (1986) Patriotism and Empire: music-hall entertainment. In MacKenzie, ed., Imperialism and Popular Culture.Google Scholar